City of Tucson lobbyists Bracy Tucker Brown and Valanzano commissioned Barry Blechman of Stimson Center to prepare a report on the status of Davis Monthan Air Force base. Stimson, co-founded by Blechman, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan institution “devoted to enhancing international peace and security.”
On April 20, the Arizona Daily Star reported on the document focusing on Blechman’s non-flying mission recommendations. The report, at $3000 a page urged the City of Tucson to work closely with its unnamed lobbyists – presumably Bracy Tucker Brown and Valanzano – to “reposition the base not as a home to combat units, but as one of only a few centralized locations where the command and control, support, and logistics necessary to project US power around the globe are located.”
Bracy’s firm was awarded a new contract on July 1, 2010, “through a competitive RFP process,” according to Adriana Mariñez, assistant to the City Manager. The City of Tucson committed to paying the firm $22,000 a month for the duration of the contract which was amended in 2014 to expire on June 30, 2015.
According to the cover letter attached to the RFP, the firm has “partnered” with Tucson for over 30 years. “Our achievements speak for themselves from specific victories such as the TIGER grant for the streetcar,” advised the firm in their letter. The firm claims to have secured over $1.2 billion in funds for the City.
In 2010, the firm refused Tucson’s request to work on an hourly basis at $500 per hour, writing that “given the hours worked to meet Tucson’s basic needs as we move from crisis to crisis we feel it would be unconscionable and would result in monthly bills at least double the retainer.”
Crisis to crisis is exactly how the City leaders operate. Using that crisis for political gain is what Mayor Rothschild and City Councilman Steve Kozachik did and continue to do.
Members of Tucson Forward and residents of areas like Arroyo Chico had grown used to the relatively quiet A-10. They despised the F-35 and preferred non-flying missions, and Kozachik followed suit to secure his base not Tucson’s base.
They react, they do not act. The City Council, after considerable pressure for their failure to support DM and the possible sighting of the F-35, passed in an emergency session, a meaningless resolution in support of the base. because the City “leaders” are incapable of clear communication, some with paranoid tendencies, saw the move by the Council as a move to martial law, others rightly saw it as an effort to cover their bases so to speak.
It didn’t fool anyone. According to a Tucson tabloid, the Tucson Association of Realtors withdrew its endorsement of Kozachik in his 2013 re-election bid on July 1, 2013, saying that Kozachik “didn’t support bringing the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.”
The tabloid reported that TAR CEO Philip Tedesco said in a prepared statement, “The F-35 appears to be the long-term future of the Air Force, our national defense strategy and our community’s economic vitality. What’s troubling is Mr. Kozachik’s position that he only supports the current mission of the base. His failure to endorse expanding the mission at D-M and the 162nd Fighter Wing is a dangerous gamble for our community and has caused us to reconsider and withdraw our endorsement.”
Kozachik, a Republican-turned-Democrat, claimed that “anybody who’s been paying any attention knows that I’ve embraced the role of D-M in our community.” The people who were paying close attention knew he was speaking out of both sides of his mouth.
A good politician never wastes a good crisis, and Kozachik is a great politician. After Jeff Flake accidently revealed on the James T. Harris radio show that the A-10 was likely going to go away, community leaders scrambled in crisis mode. At first they denied the truth of the situation, and then some, like Kozachik scrambled to jump on the A-10 bandwagon. Bring in the drones, he said among other things.
In September 2013, Kozachik, in typical convert fashion, used the A-10 crisis to bash then Republican candidate in CD2 Martha McSally. As part of his support for Congressman Ron Barber, a vocal and tireless supporter of the A-10, in a newsletter dated September 3, 2013, Kozachik used the A-10 crisis to only to highlight McSally’s less than enthusiastic support for the A-10.
See related article:Air Force maps out A-10 cuts, call for co-sponsors ramps up
In the meantime, Jonathan Rothschild was essentially silent. He wasn’t heard from publically on the matter until April 14, in an op-ed he penned for the Arizona Daily Star. In that piece, he all but washed his hands of the matter, passing responsibility on to others. He wrote:
Decisions regarding national defense are not made at City Council meetings. They’re made at the Pentagon, the White House and in the halls of Congress. While eventually the A-10 will be replaced by new technology, a false urgency is being created by the sequester. This is a problem Congress created; therefore, it’s a problem Congress has the ability to solve.
What Tucsonans can do is contact our U.S. senators and representatives and urge support for Davis-Monthan and the Arizona Air National Guard — Tucson’s other military installation — so that both continue their strategic importance, and so that both continue to attract new missions.
A cast of clowns weighed-in on the matter, arguing that the A-10 was obsolete. They suggested some reasonable, some outlandish solutions.
Time elapsed with little done. Many had hoped that while Rothschild was silent he was working behind the scenes. Sources say that other than Barber and McSally no one from the area has been knocking on the right Capitol Hill doors. They should have been camping out in front of them, according to Hill insiders.
On March 24, 2015, in a meeting with Barber, Rothschild made no mention of the Blechman report.* He mentioned his plan was to go to dinner with General Welsh. If he had other plans, he didn’t reveal them, and they sure aren’t evident.
He was nowhere to be seen up at the Arizona Capitol during the Arizona House Military Affairs committee hearing on the matter. Not even Tucson’s lobbyist was in the room.
Behind the scenes, Rothschild was telling another elected official that – should the base be closed – at least the City could use the land. He claimed he was working on a “Plan B.” His plan according to one source was vague, but “had something to do with the University of Arizona.”
Just last year, he mentioned developing “Plan B” in the event of a base closing or sharp reduction, in a article by Arizona Sonoran News. He cited the 1993 closure of Williams Air Force Base. The article reads, “Mesa annexed the land, which is now the site of Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. Allegiant Air now operates commercial air service at the airport, where there is also an industrial park with dozens of aerospace, private aviation and other companies. Mesa Gateway claims to pump $1.3 billion into the Phoenix regional economy. “I do know it is not a road you want to go down, and Mesa’s recovery is probably one of the more quickly successful ones,” Rothschild said. “I only mention it to say that you can recover — but you don’t want to have to go through that exercise.”
However, his failure to act aggressively has put Tucson at risk of going through that exercise. Perhaps Rothschild was putting most of his faith in the effort of his D.C lobbyist, Terrence L. Bracy. Bracy, like Rothschild has been around Tucson for a long time. He is the chair emeritus of the Board of Trustees of the Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation. He taught at the University of Arizona and was appointed to the post of assistant secretary of transportation by President Jimmy Carter. According to the Udall website, “Bracy has written numerous articles on public affairs issues for many periodicals, including The New York Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Washington Post, and the Arizona Daily Star.”
With those kinds of connections, if he can’t save the A-10 and Davis Monthan, he has someone who can spin the story for him and maybe find some quick federal cash to expand the streetcar to Phoenix for those commuting to where the jobs are.
*The study was commissioned in Sept of 2014, according to Lane Mandle, Communications Coordinator, City of Tucson.